| Ani DiFranco – She Says Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song is about someone who is unable to enter a loving relationship despite desperately wanting to (exact reason is left unsaid). There are a few ways to interpret specific lines and metaphors, but I'll present one options here. The singer is with a woman ("she" in "She Says") who wants to protect the singer from some sort of dark past or other pain ("Forget what you have to do / Pretend there is nothing / Outside this room"). The singer is deeply compelled by the safety offered, but realizes that she (singer) would be unable to change enough to embrace it ("And like an idea she came to me / But she came too late / Or maybe too soon"). The woman is like an idea in that she represents a new way of being for the singer (i.e. a happier one); a new paradigm, if you will. Sadly, the woman comes after some past event that makes it impossible for the singer to feel at ease being happy (came too late), or at least not yet (or maybe too soon). The singer realizes she must break things off and tries to have a moment of complete honesty ("I said please try not to love me / Close your eyes, I'm turning on the light / You know I have no vacancy"). "Turning on the light" means complete openness, but often hurts (i.e. since eyes are adjusted to the dark). The singer leaves the woman's bed and faces the cold outside ("It's awfully cold outside tonight"). The rain here serves to emphasize that the singer is drawn to an outside where things are not improving, the bricks and street are being stained "darker shades" rather than becoming brighter. The singer's pain at leaving happiness behind and her resolve are emphasized when she must "dress her face in stone / Because [she] can't go back." She must purge herself of feeling, lest those feelings prevent her from doing what she must do. The woman is clearly hurt by the singer's departure and there is now a distance between them. The woman watches the singer "from the curtain of her hair," implying that the singer can no longer see her face (i.e. is no longer as connected to her). The moment is awkward and the woman breaks off the limited contact, saying "I'm sorry / I didn't mean to stare." The singer leaves. The last lines (before the repeats) talk about the singer's regret and potentially unrealizable hope for a better future. "Oh baby, maybe someday / Maybe somehow." |
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| Bruce Springsteen – Straight Time Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song is about doing "straight time"--metaphorical "time" (i.e. jail time) while you're supposedly free after coming out of prison. I want to expand on some of the comments made below. Charlie (protagonist) finds the the straight life restrictive ("half free") and unhappy: his behavior has to be entirely pure because no one trusts him ("Walked the clean and narrow / just tryin' to stay out and stay alive"). Even his wife cannot seem to trust him in what should be a happy and innocent moment ("Kitchen floor in the evening, tossin' my little babies high / Mary's smilin', but she watches me out of the corner of her eye"). Charlie's life feels like a dead end. His job doesn't have much potential ("Got a job at the rendering factory, it ain't gonna make me rich") and he feels trapped ("Eight years in, it feels like you're gonna die / But you get used to anything / Sooner or later it becomes your life"). Meanwhile, he's surrounded by people who are making it big illegally: his hot car-running uncle apparently has $100 to throw around. Charlie's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Charlie is always tempted to go back to crime ("Got a cold mind to go tripping cross that thin line / I'm sick of doin' straight time"; "Sometimes I can feel the itch") and, ultimately, gives in to this urge. He does NOT kill himself, though perhaps the "gun in the basement alone" bit is suggestive of a *metaphorical* suicide. He takes his "huntin' gun and a hacksaw" and cuts off "thirteen inches of barrel." Stereotypically, sawed off shotguns are used by criminals; you don't need to saw off a barrel to kill yourself. There is also a final scene (last three lines) where Charlie is definitely alive. The end is very ambiguous. Charlie comes home (from a crime), goes to sleep and goes "drifting off into foreign lands." I think the most reasonable interpretation is that his dreams are a continuation of his life: Charlie is alienated from the world and is adrift; his return to crime is not so much a decision as an indecision, the desperation of someone lost. You could also read it to say that the freedom he has found is foreign or that he is dreaming of a freedom foreign to him. |
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| Dire Straits – News Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I agree with the below in terms of it being about a biker engaged in a risky career and a wife who tries to stop him. However, I haven't seen anyone take on the central theme of the song which is about "news" and cliches. This song is full of tropes/idioms. In fact, it is largely constructed from them: "sticks to his guns"; "takes the road as it comes"; "takes the shine off [his shoes]"; "gambling with his life"; "kicks it alive"; "it's a shame"; "won't play to lose"... almost all the lines are common phrases or, at least, devoid of individual detail; "he open the door / he take a sniff of the street" tells you very little about the biker as an individual person. And yet, somehow the song becomes incredibly poignant and we are able to put the cliches together to form a complex picture of his character and his situation. A lot of this is subtle and through the music or intonation, but it's also through the lyrics. I think there are a few key ideas we can get from this: 1) Behind every simplistic "line in the news" and the cliches or bland descriptions therein there are real, actualized people. 2) Alternately, it's an embrace of the cliche. We live in a world where every story has been told (to the point that it is a cliche), but that somehow doesn't diminish from the stories' power. |
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| Iron & Wine – Sodom, South Georgia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song is about faith in the face of birth and death. I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white. Like most Iron and Wine songs, this one presents images that are open to multiple interpretations. Here I'll suggest a particular one. It helps to remember that Sodom was a blasphemous, sinful place. To me, the "South Georgia" signifies a sort of personal Sodom; that is, the singer's personal feelings against God. In the first verse, the singer's father dies, but seems content in his death ("Papa died smiling"). Understandably, the singer is angered by the loss and directs this anger against God ("And Sodom South Georgia / Woke like a tree full of bees"). In the third verse, the singer reflects on the connection between religion and death ("Papa died Sunday [a holy day]"). Even though everyone is doomed to death ("All dead white boys"), they still love and worship God ("Say God is good"). I don't personally take the "White tongues hang out" as being about tombstones since tombstones don't "hang." Instead, I read it as a description of unthinking devotion, maybe tied in with the Catholic religious ritual (as has been suggested). Verse 4 parallels the death of the singer's father ("Papa died while my") with the birth of his daughter ("girl lady Edith was born"). The wonder of her birth quiets his anger, though death remains present somewhere in his mind ("And Sodom South / Slept on an acre of bones"). Verse 6 again returns to parallel death and religion. To summarize a bit, it is a song about a very old and very fundamental struggle with religious faith (e.g. in Job). The cruelty of death pushes us toward anger against God and the miracle of life calms us and draws us back. The singer is well-aware of his fluctuating faith, contrasting himself to those who are more dogmatic. However, his understanding ("And I understood...") means different things in each verse. After his father dies, the line seems to mean that a fear of death will lead to dogmatic faith (because of the promise of eternal life). However, after his daughter is born, the line seems to mean more that he understands how the miracle of life draws people to God. A few bits and pieces: the verses about Sodom undercut themselves in an interesting fashion. In verse 2, his anger is "buried" by the Christmas bows and weeds, suggesting that his anger is latent or that he is unable to act on it (e.g.) because he is simply performing the rituals of everyday life, because of the detritus in his mind... In verse 5, the ominous "bones" reference reminds us that death exists even during the miracle of life (sort of an "Et in Arcadia ego" moment). The snow, to me, suggests that while his "Sodom" is sleeping and buried under sound-proof snow, there may well be a time it will arise again. Some of the other lines help to set the tone. e.g. "Small as a wish in a well" gives us a sense of how little human desire ("wishing") influences the world. |
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| Iron & Wine – Sodom, South Georgia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song is about faith in the face of birth and death. I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white. Like most Iron |
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| Iron & Wine – Sodom, South Georgia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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The song is about faith in the face of birth and death. I fail to see how the "all dead white boys" line can be made to be about race (as some comments have suggested). The song talks about the singer's father's death and the birth of the singer's daughter; nowhere is something like Jim Crow or slavery mentioned. The "white" should really be thought of as "up in the sky white" (i.e. the "star white" of the song). That is, an ethereal or angelic (literally) white. Like most Iron |
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| Mark Knopfler – Hill Farmer's Blues Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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It's definitely about an unfaithful wife and the husband/hill farmer's reaction. At first, the farmer seems to be describing a normal trip into town, but the tone quickly gets dark. The second line of each verse makes it increasingly clear that the farmer is discussing his reaction to emotional pain ("For what I need" / "To fuel my fire" / "To have my fun"). In the last verse, he makes the unfaithfulness explicit ("Behind my back, Lord / You made a fool of me"). The last verse seems to imply that the farmer is going into Tow Law to be unfaithful, in turn, to his wife, even though he still loves her ("I'm going into Tow Law / To have my fun / Don't get me wrong you were the only one.") This idea is reinforced by his repetition of "Don't wait up for me." As earlier comments have suggested, the "shopping list" helps to set a dark tone for the song as everything the farmer mentions buying is capable of doing violence. (ripsaw chain, weed killer, shotgun shells, razor wire) His command "Don't do jack" (i.e. don't do anything) is also threatening; he is commanding her to stay alone in the house while he goes into town to "have his fun." How much of his threat is physical and how much is emotional (or metaphorical) is not explicitly clear. The song's violence is counterposed by the "So bad..." lyrics, suggesting that the farmer's innermost thoughts are of the weakness of hurt. I personally think of the dog as having been exiled to the backdoor (outside) as a consequence of their fight. He tells his wife not to feed it, underlining how the dog is an innocent victim of the farmer's anger (or perhaps an ineffectual voice of reason). I'd be open to other readings here, though. |
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